19th Century Foundations of American Literature
Both the short story “The Story of an Hour” (1894), by Kate Chopin, and the historical document “Ain’t I a Woman?” (1851), by Sojourner Truth represent the changing popular idea of democracy from the time periods the works were written in. Kate Chopin’s piece focuses on the oppression of women, and gave readers from that time an idea on what it was like being a woman and how democracy was centered on men rather than both men and women. For most of the story, the main character, Louise Mallard, weeps over the loss of her husband, until she recognizes a new feeling “approaching to possess her, and she tries to beat it back with her will.” When she gave into the new feeling, she repeats “free”
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over and over again. Mallard responds to her husband’s death as society expects her to, until she realizes she has gained freedom. The feeling of joy consumes her, as she welcomes her future of independence with open arms. When Mallard comes from her room and begins to descend the stairs with her sister, Louise’s husband enters the front door, far from dead. Her husband’s friend tries to block him from sight to prevent Louise’s heart from failing, to no avail. Louise dies soon after seeing her husband. When some doctors come to inspect Louise, they state “she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.” Society believes Louise died of happiness when seeing her husband, though her joy of freedom from moments earlier states otherwise to the readers. Sojourner Truth’s speech has similar statements to “The Story of an Hour,” though the piece focuses primarily on the people of color.
Truth mentions that a man said that “women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere.” She declares none of these acts have happened to her. She states she “could work as much and eat as much as a man - when [she] could get it - and bear the lash as well!” She also says she’s had thirteen children, most of them sold off as slaves. She spoke that “when [she] cried out with [her] mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard [her].” All of her statements end with “ain’t I a woman?” Her statements show how men say they should treat women, but do not uphold black women to these treatments. Truth shifted her speech towards religion after an audience member said women could not have as many rights as men because “Christ wasn’t a woman.” She mentions that the first woman “was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone,” and women should be able to fix it. She ended her statement by telling the audience that women are asking to fix it, and men should let them. Truth’s speech was an empowerment to change democracy. The speech helped to tell people at the time that the government, vested in the people, should not dismiss a woman’s thoughts or opinions because of her
gender.
The 19th century was a time of great social change in the United States as reflected by the abolitionist movement and the women’s suffrage movement. Two very influential women leaders were Angelina Grimke and Sojourner Truth. Grimke was born a Southern, upper class white woman. She moved to the North as a young woman, grew involved in abolitionism and women’s rights, and became known for her writing, particularly “Letters to Catherine Beecher”. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree; she escaped to freedom, changed her name, and became an active speaker on behalf of both the abolition and women’s rights movements. Truth’s most famous speech is “Ain’t I a Woman?”. While both Grimke and Truth use a personal, conversational tone to communicate their ideas, Grimke relies primarily on logical arguments and Truth makes a more emotional appeal through the use of literary strategies and speech.
In the speech, “Aint I a Woman”, Sojourner Truth expresses her opinions on the discrimination of women, especially as a black woman. Sojourner Truth uses personal experiences and reference to deliver her message. Her speech makes a resilient link to the audience to show that racism and sexism is occurring everywhere, though men are rejecting it. Sojourner Truth alludes to what men say about women. She strikes men, saying that whatever they say does not happen. Sojourner Truth points out a man in the crowd, claiming that he says, “Women need to
Truth was an amazing woman who fought for what she believed in and never gave up. One of the things she strongly believed in was women’s rights. Truth wanted equality for all women, black and white. One of the reasons Truth gave in a speech about women’s rights was that when she was a slave she worked alongside men, plowing,husking,chopping,and mowing. So what makes her any different from them?Truth traveled all over to give these incredible speeches and without her, gender inequality might have still been around today.
In her opinion, white preachers had no idea of how to preach about such trials. Truth was one of America’s first black women to tackle intersectionality before the proper term was even coined more that 100 years later. She challenged, not only white supremacy and slavery as a whole but she also challenged all male abolitionists, white or black. Awareness of the plight of the Black woman was necessary and through Truth’s love for Jesus Christ and her on-fire preaching, she was also able to sprinkle in her intolerance for slavery. Not only did Sojourner Truth forge her way through the abolitionist movement but she also impacted the feminist movement as well. She claimed that the feminist movements in America marginalized Black women and at a women’s suffrage convention, she asked, “Aren’t I a
Can you hear the voices? In a story there is always more that just one voice to be heard. Can you hear them? It is only necessary to look closely and read the text, then you can hear them. In Kate Chopin’s story, “Story of an Hour,” there are four distinct voices that can be heard. You are able to hear the narrator, author, character, and yourself as you read.
During Truth's speech she demands men's respect by alluding to nasty comments they recite throughout her speech and addressing these misconceptions. Although times have changed and women are more respected, they still face an innumerable amount of tribulation every day. He mentions how far women have come since his grandmother's day, but realizes the country as a whole has more room to grow. He mentions how tough it can be for women to juggle a demanding career while raising a family.
Slave Rebellions were becoming common and one of the most famous was Nat Turner’s Rebellion. Led by slave preacher Nat Turner, who “became convinced that he had been chosen by God to lead his people to freedom”, a group of almost 80 slaves murdered over 60 white men, women, and children (Slave Rebellions). Maria Stewart was the first black women reported to have delivered a public speech (Coddon). She wrote a manuscript to a black audience that encouraged them not to “kill, burn, or destroy”, but rather “improve your talents… show forth your powers of mind (Coddon).” She wanted black people to know that both God and our founding documents affirmed them as equal with other men (Coddon). Being a black woman herself, she addressed other black women stating “ O, ye daughters of Africa, awake! Awake! Arise! No longer sleep nor slumber, but distinguish yourselves. Show forth the world that ye are endowed with noble and exalted faculties (Coddon).” Stewart believed that the world wasn 't going to change for the blacks, that the blacks had to change for the world, but by changes she meant show the world their worthiness and fight for their equality. Another woman fighting for equality was Sojourner Truth. Truth, formerly known as Isabella and former slave, was singer and public speaker against slavery (Coddon). SHe was the only black delegate at the Worcester, Massachusetts women’s rights convention in 1850 (Coddon).
“The Story of an hour” a complex piece of literature by Kate Chopin, has various interpretations to it. This story has, one definite interpretation, which is the following: life has to go on no matter what is happened in the past. In this story, Chopin implies Ms. Mallard’s husband has been very cruel to her in her lifetime. However, she never lets her husband get in the way, finally he dies, and, she thinks she is free although she really is not.
Sojourner Truth, an African American woman and former slave, fights a double war within winning her rights. The fact that Truth is an African American female put an addition strain on her journey. Truth traveled thousands of miles giving speeches against slavery and for women’s rights. In 1851, Truth gave her famous speech, “Ain’t I a Woman” at the Women’s Convention. In her speech, she attacked the idea of women and blacks being inferior. Truth used her personal experiences to describe the discrimination she faced as a black, ex-slave woman. Truth’s main objective through her speech was to show how she is equal to any man. She declared,
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” tries to shed light on the conflict between women and a society that assigns gender roles using a patriarchal approach. Specifically, Margaret Bauer highlights, that most of Chopin’s works revolve around exploring the “dynamic interrelation between women and men, women and patriarchy, even women and women” (146). Similarly, in “The Story of an Hour” Chopin depicts a society that oppresses women mostly through the institution of marriage, as women are expected to remain submissive regardless of whether they derive any happiness. The question of divorce is not welcome, and it is tragic that freedom for women can only be realized through death. According to Bauer, the society depicted in Chopin’s story judged women harshly as it expected women to play their domestic roles without question, while on the other hand men were free to follow their dreams and impose their will on their wives (149).
" The Story of an Hour " by Kate Chopin is about a young woman with a serious heart condition that finds out her husband is killed. She reacts very different to the news then a wife would react to their husband's death. She loves her husband but is not happy with her life. After the tragic news, she envisions her life as being fuller. She sees the severity of her heart condition, but prays that she will now live longer. This story is more about her realization of her existence and her beginning to cope with her dieing rather than being completely about her husband dieing.
In the story of an hour, Kate Chopin uses many literary devices. Imagery, irony and symbolism makes the story interesting and the ending of the story raises many question came to my mind? How can such an event take so little time? What is the significant of that one hour? What does her heart trouble symbolize? These are some questions that came across my mind and the beauty of her writing is the symbolism and ironies she used and readers can have different interpretation.
Freedom is one of the most powerful words in the world because of the feeling it gives people. This idea is evident in Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour.” In the story, readers witness the effect freedom can have when the main character, Louise, finds out her husband had passed away. The story begins when Louise’s sister informs her that her husband had been in a terrible accident and he was dead. Once she gets over the immediate shock, she finds herself overwhelmed with joy because she was free to live her life for herself and not her husband. At the end of the story, her husband walks through the front door, and Louise has a heart attack and dies. In the story "The Story of an Hour," Kate Chopin reveals the power of freedom through the use of diction, point of view, and setting.
Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour is a brilliant short story of irony and emotion. The story demonstrates conflicts that take us through the character’s emotions as she finds out about the death of her husband. Without the well written series of conflicts and events this story, the reader would not understand the depth of Mrs. Mallard’s inner conflict and the resolution at the end of the story. The conflict allows us to follow the emotions and unfold the irony of the situation in “The Story of an Hour.”
One of the uttermost remarkable transformations to women throughout the world took place during the 19th century. Moreover, this renovations led to notable changes in women’s roles. During this period of time the portrayal of females was to follow their chores in their homes and to take care of the children. In contrast, the role of men during this phase was to regulate the laws in their family. Kate Chopin was a writer that described precisely the reality of women in her vast number of stories. One of her most notorious and outstanding pieces was written in 1894. “The Story of an Hour” is a formidable dramatic piece of literature due to the fact that it implies elements of fiction such as irony, imagery, and an adequate setting.